Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Behold This Heart 

While I was in grade school at Saint Nicholas, our teachers, who were members of the Irish Order of the Sisters of Mercy, instilled in us the promises of Our Lord to Saint Margaret Mary , by gathering us all together every first Friday for Mass.

"I promise you in the excessive Mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful Love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving the Sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment."  (Jesus to St. Margaret Mary)

This lesson has stayed with me for the last 50 plus years. Today, which happens also to be the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, felt even more special.

The sun shown bright this morning over the Carmelite Monastery as the bells rang loudly over the sounds of the ocean, calling us to Mass. Holy Eucharist with the Carmelite Sisters is a true sacred devotional time. Hymns are sung slowly, accentuating every prayerful word. Incense is burned and the altar blessed and surrounded by the deliciously fragrant smoke several times. The hour passes as if it were minutes.

Then as we do every First Friday, the congregation kneels in adoration as the curtain is drawn open to reveal Our Lord present in the gold monstrance over the tabernacle. In unison we recite the Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Most sweet Jesus, humbly kneeling at your feet, we renew the consecration of our family to your Divine Heart.  Be our King forever!  In you we have full and entire confidence.  May your Spirit penetrate our thoughts, our desires, our words and our works.  Bless our undertakings, share in our joys, in our trials and in our labors.  Grant us to know you better, to love you more, to serve you without faltering.  By the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of Peace, set up your kingdom in our country.  enter closely into the midst of our families and make them your own through the solemn enthronement of your Sacred Heart, so that soon one cry may resound from home to home:  "May the triumphant Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved, blessed and glorified forever." Sacred Heart of Jesus, protect our families. Sacred Heart of Jesus I trust in You. 

Now I am ready to get to work.   Peace and love to all.  

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Photography LA Momboisse at the Carmelite Monastery Carmel California 

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
as given to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

 

I.  O my Jesus, You have said:  "Truly I say to you, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you."  Behold I knock, I seek and ask to for the grace of ...(here name of your request)  Pray the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be...
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You. 

 

II.  O my Jesus, You have said:  "Truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you."  Behold, in Your Name, I ask the Father for the grace of...(here name your request)  Pray the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be...
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You. 

 

III.  O my Jesus, You have said:  "Truly I say to you, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away."  Encouraged by Your infallible words I now ask for the grace of...(here name your request)  Pray the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be...
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You.   

 

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, for whom it is impossible not to have compassion on the afflicted, have pity on us miserable sinners and grant us the grace which we ask of You, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Your tender Mother and ours.  Pray the Hail Holy Queen.
Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus, pray for us. Amen. 

 

Saint Pio recited this novena everyday for those who requested his prayers.  

 

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque - October 16

SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE
October 16

Saint Margaret Mary was born on July 25^th 1647 in a small town in Burgundy, France.  At the age of four she consecrated herself to the Lord with a prayer she composed, “Oh my Lord, I consecrate to you my purity and I make a vow of perpetual chastity.”

At the age of 24 Margaret Mary entered the Visitation convent and after two months as a postulant, she received her habit on August 25, 1671. 

On December 27, 1673, Margaret Mary received the first in a series of revelations that continued over the following year and a half.  In these revelations, Our Lord informed Margaret Mary that He had chosen her as His instrument to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart. 

"I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment" (Jesus to St. Margaret Mary).

 

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Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque - Corrado Giaquinto

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

"Jesus meek and humble of heart,
make our heart like yours."

Today, the first Friday after the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. On December 27, 1673, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque received the first in a series of revelations that continued over the following year and a half. In these revelations, Our Lord informed Saint Margaret Mary that He had chosen her as His instrument to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart.

"I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment" (Jesus to St. Margaret Mary).




“The essential nucleus of Christianity is expressed in the Heart of Jesus; in Christ the whole of the revolutionary newness of the Gospel was revealed and given to us: the Love that saves us and already makes us live in God’s eternity. Even our shortcomings, our limitations, and our weaknesses must lead us back to the Heart of Jesus. His divine Heart calls to our hearts, inviting us to come out of ourselves, to abandon our human certainties to trust in him and, following his example, to make of ourselves a gift of love without reserve.” Pope Benedict XVI

For items related to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Please visit Lynn’s Timeless Treasures

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Art
The Sacred Heart and Saint Margaret Mary from the Vatican Museum

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Behold this Heart which has so loved men!
It is all Love and Mercy.

Tomorrow, the Friday following the feast of Corpus Christi, the Church celebrates the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, a feast day that dates back to the early Church Fathers. The devotion has grown over the centuries as the earliest Christians contemplated the crucified Jesus with deep veneration and love, meditating on his wounds. A special significance was given to the Heart of Jesus and the wound in his side. Timothy O'Donnell, S.T.D. writes in his book, Heart of the Redeemer, “under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, men came to see in His open side the wounded Heart of the Lamb.”

In 1675 a Visitation nun, St. Margaret Mary Alqcoque received a revelation from Our Lord which established the basic structure of this devotion to His Sacred Heart. As the depth of Christ’s love for each one of us is infinite, no one specific practice can describe this devotion.

Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

“Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of its very nature, is a worship of the love with which God, through Jesus, loved us, and at the same time, an exercise of our own love by which we are related to God and to other men. Or to express it in another way, devotion of this kind is directed towards the love of God for us in order to adore it, give thanks for it, and live so as to imitate it; it has this in view, as the end to be attained, that we bring that love by which we are bound to God to the rest of men to perfect fulfillment by carrying out daily more eagerly the new commandment which the divine Master gave to His Apostles as a sacred legacy when He said: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Pope Pius XII

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 
“The essential nucleus of Christianity is expressed in the Heart of Jesus; in Christ the whole of the revolutionary newness of the Gospel was revealed and given to us: the Love that saves us and already makes us live in God’s eternity. Even our shortcomings, our limitations, and our weaknesses must lead us back to the Heart of Jesus. His divine Heart calls to our hearts, inviting us to come out of ourselves, to abandon our human certainties to trust in him and, following his example, to make of ourselves a gift of love without reserve.” Pope Benedict XVI

The Word is Love
The Word is Truth
The Word is Mercy
Thanks be to God